The present invention pertains to machines for the counting of beverage cans for the purpose of determining the refund owed to the customer returning the cans and subsequently to the store from a can reclaiming firm.
By law in several states, the purchasers of canned beverages must pay a deposit at the time of purchase. Upon return of the container to the store, the customer is refunded the container deposit. The intent of such legislation is to deter the discard of containers along public access areas and secondly to effect a conservation of energy and materials by the recycling of aluminum. Various type of machines have been proposed for the counting of cans for the purpose of determining the refund. An example of such prior art machines are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,445,430; 4,465,195 and 4,454,028. The foregoing patents also elaborate on problems encountered in can recycling. The primary purpose behind the development of can counting machines is the dispensing with the tedious manual counting of returned cans which may be inaccurate as well as costly from a labor standpoint over a period of time. Further, some retail establishments have entered into the dubious practice of accepting the customer's count of returned cans. In addition to the effort spent physically counting cans, there is the problem of customer relations when a disparity exists in the can count between store personnel and the customer. A still further drawback to known machines is the machines require a sorting effort on the customer's part. Further, the complexity and hence cost of known can processing machines is such as to render the machines cost prohibitive for use in small food stores or other retail establishments.